The night is here. It's time to see if the Academy has chosen well. I fell a bit short of my goal to watch every film nominated, but I did manage 38 of the 50, with all the major categories completely covered. The documentary, foreign film and documentary shorts are hard to get a hold of. None the less I'm looking forward to watching this year's awards more than any others. Most years I complain that the pretentious Academy has only nominated small art films that no one likes. While it's true most people haven't seen most of the nominated films most do deserve their nominations and were quality films. I'm happy that the awards has exposed me to these films which I ordinarily would not have bothered to watch. Here are my picks for the 81st Academy Awards. My personal favorite picks are in blue, the choice that I think will win is in bold and films that I haven't seen are in red.

Best Picture
* The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
* Frost/Nixon
* Milk
* The Reader
* Slumdog Millionaire
Thoughts: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button should not have been nominated and is the on the list where I would be upset if it one. The other films were very good and deserving of the nomination. I still would have liked to see The Wrestler, WALL-E, Rachel Getting Married or the Dark Knight get nominated, but given the choices Slumdog is the clear choice and is the choice I think the academy will go with.

Best Director
* Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire
* Stephen Daldry – The Reader
* David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
* Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon
* Gus Van Sant – Milk
Thoughts: I'm still disappointed that Christopher Nolan didn't get nominated, but given the choices of what I've seen, the award has to go to Boyle. Van Sant has a strong case, but I think Boye is most deserving over all and the academy will recognize this.

Best Actor
* Richard Jenkins – The Visitor
* Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon
* Sean Penn – Milk
* Brad Pitt – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
* Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler
Thoughts: This is the award I care most about. I'd be very disappointed if Rourke did not win this. Penn gave a fantastic performance, but this is Rourke's year.

Best Actress
* Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married
* Angelina Jolie – Changeling
* Melissa Leo – Frozen River
* Meryl Streep – Doubt
* Kate Winslet – The Reader
Thoughts: Winslet gave a really great performance and I have no problem with her winning tonight as she probably will. I'm going with Hathaway though since she surprised me the most and I enjoyed her role. I also feel Rachel Getting Married deserves a win and this one makes the most sense. Again, I think Leo shouldn't have been nominated, I think there were more deserving actresses this year.

Best Supporting Actor
* Josh Brolin – Milk
* Robert Downey, Jr. – Tropic Thunder
* Philip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt
* Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
* Michael Shannon – Revolutionary Road
Thoughts: I hope people don't think Ledger winning isn't just because of his death. He deserves this award.

Best Supporting Actress
* Amy Adams – Doubt
* Penélope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
* Viola Davis – Doubt
* Taraji P. Henson – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
* Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler
Thoughts: I'm torn between Cruz and Henson, both gave great performances. That being said I'm picking Cruz since she meant the most to the film she was in. Viola Davis will probably win, but it's a mystery to me why. She was in her film for about five minutes. Amy Adam's perofrmance was annoying.

Best Original Screenplay
* WALL-E - Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon and Pete Docter
* Happy-Go-Lucky - Mike Leigh
* Frozen River - Courtney Hunt
* In Bruges - Martin McDonagh
* Milk - Dustin Lance Black
Thoughts: So many good films nominated in this category it's hard to pick just one. I don't think Milk will win best picture so I think it will get this as a consolation prize. My favorite is In Bruges, but given the competition it has next to no chance to win. The only one I don't want to see win Frozen River. It really wasn't all that great of a screen play.

Best Adapted Screenplay
* The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
* Frost/Nixon - Peter Morgan
* The Reader - David Hare
* Slumdog Millionaire - Simon Beaufoy
* Doubt - John Patrick Shanley
Thoughts: It is so hard to pick, but I think Slumdog deserves to win. However, I don't think it will Either the Reader or Doubt will, but I think Doubt will come away on top.

Best Animated Feature
* Bolt – Chris Williams and Byron Howard
* Kung Fu Panda – Mark Osborne and John Stevenson
* WALL-E – Andrew Stanton
Thoughts: Not really much of a competition here.

Best Foreign Language Film
* Revanche (Austria) in German - Götz Spielmann
* The Class (France) in French - Laurent Cantet
* The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany) in German
* Departures (Japan) in Japanese
* Waltz with Bashir (Israel) in Hebrew - Ari Folman
Thoughts: I've only seen two of the nominated films, so it's a bit tough to choose. Both Waltz and Revanche were very good films. Waltz has the momentum from winning the Golden Globes however, so I think it will win. On a personal level I'd like to see Revanche get the win a bit more. The Class is also a strong contender.

Best Animated Short
* La Maison En Petits Cubes - Kunio Kato
* Lavatory - Lovestory - Konstantin Bronzit
* Oktapodi - Emud Mokhberi and Thierry Marchand
* Presto - Doug Sweetland
* This Way Up - Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes
Thoughts: The only short I couldn't get my hands on was La Maison En Petis Cubes. My personal favorites were Oktapodi and Presto. Given the two I give Presto the slight edge. The one I liked the least, 'This Way Up' will probably come away with the award.

Best Art Direction
* Changeling – James J. Murakami, Gary Fettis
* The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Donald Graham Burt, Victor J. Zolfo
* The Dark Knight – Nathan Crowley, Peter Lando
* The Duchess – Michael Carlin, Rebecca Alleway
* Revolutionary Road – Kristi Zea, Debra Schutt
Thoughts: The best part of Benjamin Button was the art and makeup. Therefore, I'm picking it for most of the art awards.

Best Cinematography
* Changeling – Tom Stern
* The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Claudio Miranda
* The Dark Knight – Wally Pfister
* The Reader – Chris Menges, Roger Deakins
* Slumdog Millionaire – Anthony Dod Mantle
Thoughts: Slumdog was beautifully shot, and the look of it stuck in my mind more than the rest of the nominated films.

Best Costume Design
* Australia – Catherine Martin
* The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Jacqueline West
* The Duchess – Michael O'Connor
* Milk – Danny Glicker
* Revolutionary Road – Albert Wolsky
Thoughts: I hate to pick this film for best costume, since the period films always seem to win this award... but given the subject, its only fitting that this film wins this award.

Best Documentary Feature
* Nerakhoon (The Betrayal)
* Encounters at the End of the World
* The Garden
* Man on Wire
* Trouble the Water
Thoughts: Given that I thought Man on Wire was one of the best films of the year period I feel secure in picking it as best documentary. If any other were to win I hope its Encounters at the End of the World, not only because its the only other one that I saw, but because Herzog is amazing.

Best Documentary Short
* The Conscience of Nhem En – Steven Okazaki
* The Final Inch
* Smile Pinki
* The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306
Thoughts: Unfortunately I couldn't find any of the nominated short documentaries to watch. So my pick is a slightly educated guess.

Best Film Editing
* The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Kirk Baxter, Angus Wall
* The Dark Knight – Lee Smith
* Frost/Nixon – Mike Hill, Daniel P. Hanley
* Milk – Elliot Graham
* Slumdog Millionaire – Chris Dickens

Best Live Action Short
* On the Line (Auf der Strecke)
* Manon On the Asphalt
* New Boy
* The Pig (Grisen)
* Toyland (Spielzeugland)
Thoughts: I'm excited for this catagory for the first time since starting to watch the awards. Manon On the Asphalt and On the Line were two of my favoites from the list. I think On the Line will win, but my pick is Manon. Toyland is also a strong contender.

Best Makeup
* The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Greg Cannom
* The Dark Knight – John Caglione, Jr. and Conor O’Sullivan
* Hellboy II: The Golden Army – Mike Elizalde and Thom Floutz

Best Original Score
* The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Alexandre Desplat
* Defiance – James Newton Howard
* Milk – Danny Elfman
* Slumdog Millionaire – A.R. Rahman
* WALL-E – Thomas Newman

Best Original Song
* "Down to Earth" from WALL-E – Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman (music), Peter Gabriel (lyrics)
* "Jai Ho" from Slumdog Millionaire – A. R. Rahman (music), Gulzar (lyrics)
* "O Saya" from Slumdog Millionaire – A. R. Rahman and M.I.A.

Best Sound Editing
* The Dark Knight – Richard King
* Iron Man – Frank Eulner and Christopher Boyes
* Slumdog Millionaire – Tom Sayers
* WALL-E – Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood
* Wanted – Wylie Stateman

Best Sound Mixing
* The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce, Mark Weingarten
* The Dark Knight – Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo, Ed Novick
* Slumdog Millionaire – Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, Resul Pookutty
* WALL-E – Tom Myers, Michael Semanick, Ben Burtt
* Wanted – Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montaño, Petr Forejt

Best Visual Effects
* The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton, Craig Barron
* The Dark Knight – Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Tim Webber, Paul Franklin
* Iron Man – John Nelson, Ben Snow, Dan Sudick, Shane Mahan